Nano-fabrication includes the fabrication of very small structures that have features on the order of 100 nanometers or smaller. One application in which nano-fabrication has had a sizeable impact is in the processing of integrated circuits. The semiconductor processing industry continues to strive for larger production yields while increasing the circuits per unit area formed on a substrate, therefore nano-fabrication becomes increasingly important. Nano-fabrication provides greater process control while allowing continued reduction of the minimum feature dimensions of the structures formed. Other areas of development in which nano-fabrication has been employed include biotechnology, optical technology, mechanical systems, and the like.
Nano-fabrication can include imprinting of a full field or a partial field. A full field is a field in which all of an imprinting field of a template overlies all of a substrate and its corresponding overlying formable material. A partial field is a field in which only part and not all of an imprinting field of a template overlies the substrate or a portion of substrate where edge effects of the substrate are significant, for example, over a portion of the substrate that has a contoured (rounded) edge.